Passengers will see more trains, fewer replacement buses and significantly less disruption this Christmas holiday period, compared to previous years, as work affecting train services is cut-back and re-arranged as far as possible.  This will result in the overwhelming majority of passengers being unaffected by work to improve the railway.

New figures published by train companies and Network Rail show that over the holiday period from 22 December to 4 January 2010:

Over £100m will be invested in improving the railway
33% fewer replacement buses will operate compared with last year
8,000 more trains will run compared with last year, almost 18,000 more than 2006 (The increase in services is due to a combination of fewer replacement bus services and thus more trains, and new timetables)
Analysis by the Association of Train Operating Companies also shows that 95% of the country's stations will be served by a rail service during the holiday when the network is operating its seasonal service.

Network Rail’s director of operations and customer service, Robin Gisby said: ”We're doing a lot of work this year to make Britain's railway better but the overall effect on the passenger is markedly less. Passengers will see more trains, fewer buses and a better service this Christmas holiday period as our vital improvement work starts to use new techniques and equipment that lessens the impact on train services.  This will be the model for the years ahead as we invest heavily to build a bigger, better railway.”

Michael Roberts, chief executive of ATOC, said: “The vast majority of people travelling by train will be unaffected by improvement work over the Christmas and New Year period.

“Hundreds of millions of pounds are spent all year round by train companies and Network Rail on improving services for passengers and the Christmas period is no different. The investment will help to build on the current record levels of punctuality.

“On the small number of routes that will be affected, train companies have been focussing all their efforts on letting passengers know about any changes to their normal journey. People travelling over the Christmas period should either call National Rail Enquiries or visit its website to check on all aspects of their journey.”

The overwhelming majority of the main routes and cities will remain connected by rail over the  holiday period:

• Birmingham to Manchester, including Stoke-on-Trent
• Birmingham to Plymouth, including Bristol

• Edinburgh to Glasgow

• Leeds to Bradford
• Leeds to Manchester

• London to Birmingham, including Coventry and Birmingham International
• London to Brighton, including East Croydon, Redhill and Gatwick
• London to Edinburgh, including Peterborough, Leeds, York and Newcastle
• London to Glasgow, including Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle
• London to Kent, including Ashford, Canterbury and Dover
• London to Liverpool, including Crewe and Warrington
• London to Manchester, including Stoke and Stockport
• London to Penzance, including Reading, Exeter and Plymouth
• London to Sheffield, including Leicester and Derby

On the very small number of routes that will be affected by vital improvement work, train companies have undertaken advertising campaigns to make passengers aware of any disruption to their services. This includes, posters, leaflets, station announcements, text and twitter alerts, e-mails and information on the national rail website. Network Rail has also undertaken national and regional press and radio advertising.

Network Rail engineers will be working around the clock over the period to deliver more than £100m-worth of rail improvement projects aimed at delivering a better railway.

The work will result in more reliable, faster and potentially more frequent train services.  It will help to build on the current record levels of punctuality and customer satisfaction – more than nine out of ten trains arrive on time and four out of five passengers are satisfied with the service that they receive.

The main locations and train services affected by improvement work over the holiday period includes:

Bristol to Newport (27 December to 3 January 2010) the first phase of the £150m Newport area improvement scheme, which will deliver more reliable services for passengers throughout the region, will be completed over the Christmas break.  The job entails modernising signal equipment, extensive rebuilding of tracks around Severn Tunnel Junction station and the building of a new platform.  Preparatory work for the redevelopment of Newport Station ready for the Ryder Cup is also taking place. As a result the rail route into South Wales from Bristol and Gloucester will be closed over the Christmas / New Year period although four other routes into Wales from England remain open

Southampton area (27 December to 3 January 2010) part of a £71m project designed to remove up to 50,000 lorries a year from the roads and provide a cheaper, quicker, greener and more practical way of transporting goods around the country is taking place in Southampton over the Christmas period.  The track through Southampton railway tunnel is being lowered and St Deny’s road bridge is being demolished and rebuilt to allow bigger ‘high-cube’ containers to be transported efficiently by rail from the Port of Southampton across the country, making a valuable contribution to the regional and national economy.  Train services which pass through Southampton will face disruption during this time

Thameslink upgrade (27 December to 1 January 2010) part of the £5.5bn Thameslink upgrade project that will enable services on the route to almost quadruple. Services over Christmas will run on the Thameslink route but will not go through the central London ‘core’, between St Pancras International and London Bridge/Herne Hill.  This will enable our engineers to remove and replace a bridge at Blackfriars station and divert a Victorian sewer at Farringdon station

Liverpool Street (27 December to 3 January 2010) Network Rail is continuing its £200m scheme to replace all the old and worn out overhead line equipment on the routes into Liverpool Street station that will deliver a much improved and more reliable infrastructure and train service for passengers .  Services on the Great Eastern main line from Liverpool Street to Stratford will be affected by this work

As well as these major items of work there are scores of other, non-disruptive pieces of rail improvement work being done over the quiet holiday period to upgrade, renew and maintain hundreds of secondary lines and stations